We just got back from camp. Let me tell you, God moved. I love all of the decisions that were made this past week. The decisions of accepting Christ for the first time, the re-commitments to Christ, the decisions to be baptized, the decisions for wanting to get out of pits in life and decisions for full-time ministry. It really is incredible to see.

God senses the open hearts and He moves in a huge way. I was having a great conversation with my small group boys (who are going to be seniors this year) about why there is such a feeling at camp and why that feeling tends to go away a few weeks after they return home. We talked about 5 things we do at every day that we need to do at home to keep up this feeling of closeness to God.

If you think about it (and they did) it really is doable. Here are the 5 things we do at camp every day that students usually don’t do every day when they get home. I told them this feeling does not have to go away and these are big reasons how to keep that “camp high”:

Have Fun. Camp is a blast. Games, free time, food, great music and 5 days with friends in a cabin. What is not fun about that. This is usually the easiest one to keep when students go back home.

Be open with encouraging friends. At camp they are in close quarters with friends. In the cabin times they are open, authentic and real about what is going on in their lives. They pray for each other and lift each other up. Keep being like this at home. You don’t need to only be open at camp.

Worship everyday. For many students, they time they truly worship is at church at services. We worship everyday at camp. We are made to worship everyday so no wonder it’s amazing when we do it for 5 days straight. Making worship an everyday part of the week home from camp can be challenging but it could be just sitting still and throwing your favorite worships songs on in the car and sing from home to school or work. Make it a point everyday to intentionally worship.

Quiet time everyday. Every day we are in the Word of God. We are reading Scripture. We are hearing God’s voice. At camp, there are allotted times in which we do this. Why is there not an allotted time in our lives when we get home? Diving into God’s word is huge to keep up this feeling of closeness to God.

Prayer everyday. Everyday at camp we pray. Not only pray in a meal type setting, but prayer in a “God, you are the only one who can fix this, change my life” type setting. For some reason student’s prayer lives when they go back home become surface level again. I told my guys, “If you cannot be honest with God in prayer, you will never be open and honest with each other.” We can still pray and expect God to move and show up when we get home as well. God does not only move at camp.

If we can get our students to grasp this, our services throughout the year will look like camp services. They are open, real, authentic, and students expect God to show up. That “high” never has to go away. We can help students bring camp home by doing these things on a daily basis.

 

@justinknowles3